The Curse of Abel Frye
by Phoenix Bradley
Summary: COMPLETE! Ten years ago, a student at Hogwarts went through so much pain he died to stop it. Now something's wrong at Hogwarts. Ginny Weasley is victim number three in a chain of attacks launched on random students supposedly by him...
1. Ginny's attack

The Curse of Abel Frye

By, Smeagol's Girl

(This is a Harry Potter/Hangman's Curse crossover. I have to do a little tampering around with things to get this to work, so bear with me. I, obviously, own nothing. All Harry Potter Characters belong to JK Rowling, and the unfamiliar characters belong to Frank Peretti. Rated PG for brief language, drug references, and some violence. Like Father Like Daughter? is already finished, it's just taking its time being posted because its going through the final editing stages. Read that one too. People seem to like it for some reason.)

The rain was pouring on the quidditch players as they struggled to score points and stay on their slippery brooms at the same time. Harry, who had just waterproofed his glasses, squinted in the fog, trying to see any trace of the golden snitch.

His eyes strayed to the stands and narrowed suspiciously. Malfoy and his gang were watching Ginny Weasley awfully close, almost as though they were expecting something to happen. Malfoy had been thrown off the quidditch team for causing one too many fights with other players, or they caused the fights with him was more like it. Lately Malfoy, since the beginning of the year, had been drained of any want to start fights. Harry could only guess it had something to do with his father in Azkaban. But all those years of tormenting people weren't paying off, and most students weren't about to let him off so easily. This was the first year that Harry actually found himself feeling a little pity for Malfoy.

There was a whisk of wind beside him, and he found Pansy Parkinson, the new seeker, was in front of him, glaring at him menacingly. She had changed dramatically over the summer. She'd lost a lot of weight, and her pug face had slimmed down into more of what he thought looked like a cat face with slitted eyes, and a narrow face. Her black gloved hands wrapped tighter around the broom and she sneered at Harry.

"Your girlfriend down there, I'd watch my back if I were her," she spat. Harry cringed.

"I wouldn't be so obvious if I were you, Parkinson," he growled. "People know things about you and your group. We'll get you all expelled if you don't stop." She smirked.

"Whoever said it was me?" she asked. And then sped off, extending a hand out in front of her. Harry caught a small glimpse of the snitch just inches away from her fingers, and he took off, soon catching up.

They rammed into each other, trying to knock each other off until it turned into a two man mosh pit between them.

Pansy lost her grip for a brief moment and slid over the edge of her broom, clinging on to the stick with one hand. Harry immediately took advantage of this and made a grab for the snitch, just catching it. The game was over and they won.

As he landed he noticed Malfoy and his group had left. Something wasn't right.

Harry waited outside of the locker room for Ginny to come out. When she did arrive she was a little sweaty, but had a smile still on her face from their victory.

"That was a good catch, Harry," she said as he put his arm around her and began to walk off with him.

"You did good too," he said with a grin. "Pansy seemed very mad at you for some reason."

"She should be," said Ginny in a bragging tone.

"What did you do to her?"

"I dumped a bucket of bleach all over her favorite black sweater. It's completely ruined." She laughed, but Harry couldn't even grin at that. He usually loved hearing these stories, but the way Malfoy and his group had been eyeballing Ginny during the game was still bothering him. "Harry, what's the matter with you?"

"Nothing," he muttered. "I don't find it very funny is all." She raised an eyebrow but decided to drop it.

As they approached the school doors, she stopped and pointed to the bushes. "Look who it is," she muttered. Harry glanced up and saw Malfoy's head pop up, watching Ginny intently. "What are you-"she began to call, but then stopped an placed a hand on her stomach.

"Ginny?" asked Harry. Ginny's eyes widened and she looked around, starting to gasp in a panicking way and soon fell on her knees, grabbing at her head.

"NO!!!" she screamed. "NO! Go away!"

"Ginny!" shouted Harry.

"ABEL FRYE!" she screamed, and then fell on her back writhing around as if in pain. "ABEL FRYE!" she shouted again. Students came running from every direction, and eventually Dumbledore and Madam Pomfrey were there.

"I think Abel's got her," said one voice. There were mutters throughout the crowd, and Harry looked up to see that Malfoy had, conveniently, disappeared. Ginny was rushed to St. Mungos, making herself the third victim of these attacks.


	2. Under Cover

Two teenaged punks, a boy and a girl, walked into the almost empty parking garage, one of them dancing around with his headphones on. Following them was another teenaged boy, only dressed in dirty and ratty clothing. They waited by a set of stairs as a woman walked in with a backpack on, and a handgun pointed at the homless boy. She stared him down suspiciously and then turned to the girl.

"You sure he's not 5/0?" she asked in a less than friendly tone. The girl made a stiffled laugh.

"Does he look like a cop?" she asked. The woman lowered her backpack and began to open it.

"Five hundred grams, freshly made this morning," she said as she pulled out a bag filled with white powder. The boy smiled.

"I'll take it," he said, looking relieved to not have a gun in his face.

"Let's see the money first." He reached in his pocket and pulled out a large wad of 50 dollar bills. She smirked and tossed him the bag as he tossed her the cash.

"It'll take me about a week to sell this. Then I'll get back to you." The two punks looked at their watches.

"We gotta split," said the girl. She grabbed the boy by his chain leash and tugged him along and out the door.

The other boy had just shoved the bag in his jacket when the door flew open, and a man walked in, dragging the two punks with him. The man was tall and muscular, with a nose pierce that went in between his nostrils. He wore a pair of sunglasses and there was a black cross on his forehead.

"Look what I found," growled the man. "I found these two snooping around. One of them had this." He pulled out a tape recorder and threw it on the ground, stomping on it. The girl gave a wail, and they were both tossed on the ground. "Stay on the ground!" roared the man. He looked over at the homeless boy.

"I swear, I'm not a cop!" he cried, as a rifel was pointed in his face. The man stared at him, ready to pulled the trigger.

"He looks too stupid to graduate from the academy," he growled. "On the other hand, you never know. You've got three seconds. Start pleading for your life."

"I swear I'm not a cop! I'm with Chester Fields. He's they guy who pointed me to you."

"Never heard of him. You're down to your last second."

"I came here, but I'm also working for Gomez."

"If you're working for Gomez then why are you dealing for us?"

"Gomez keeps all the money. I've go nowhere else to go." The man stared for a moment, when the doors flew open again, and a group of cops rushed in and pointed their guns at them all.

"Get down! Put your hands behind your head!" They all laid down on the ground, and the police handcuffed the boy first. He reached in the boy's pocket and pulled out the bag of cocain. "What have we got here? Let's go, punk!" They pulled the boy up and hurried him out the door. The others waited till he was gone, and the four people on the ground stood up with a groan and began to remove their costumes. The man and woman faded back into what they really looked like, and the girl pulled off her wig.

"We got lucky," muttered Harry Potter as he pulled off the dog collar around his neck. "Any longer and the pollyjuice potion would have worn off. That would have given him a start." Hermione smirked as she undid the pins in her hair. Snape groaned as he pulled out the phony nose peircing.

"I cannot believe you made me wear this," he muttered. Tonks smirked as she pulled her wig off.

"Perfect timing, just like Harry said. And we've got it all on tape." She tossed her hidden tape recorder to the police man and they took their leave.

"Next time you want to hire me for one of your undercover jobs, don't," said Snape. "I don't understand why you have this job."

"It's not about me," said Tonks. "That boy will go to JUVY, and after that he's being placed in a foster home with a good family. It's not about me at all, Snape." She glanced at Hermione who was brushing out her hair. "Oh there's Hermione Granger," said said teasingly. "Chains an dog collars didn't look natural on you." Snape smirked and glanced at Harry who couldn't get the comb through his spiked hair.

"I told you not to use so much gel," said Hermione.

"I think we'll have to shave it," said Snape.

"Most definently," said Tonks.

"Uh-huh. Shave it."

"All of it."

About an hour later they were completely out of costume, and Hermione and Harry were ready to go back to school. Tonks' pager went off, and she stepped towards a window so she could read what it said.

"No way," she muttered. "Hey guys, check this out. My next assignment is Hogwarts." Hermione and Harry looked up.

"What?" asked Hermione.

"I'll bet you anything it has something to do with the attacks on the quidditch team," said Harry. "The first victim went a step down this morning."

"You two know about this?" asked Tonks.

"Only what we've seen," said Hermione. "Maybe we could help on this one too. Pose as students."

"You are students," said Snape.

"Hermione's right," said Harry. "We know the students and we've seen what's happened so far. We could help." Tonks shrugged.

"I'd have to run it by my boss and Dumbledore, but I see no reason why not," she said softly.

"Ginny's slipped into a coma," said Ron as he, Hermione, and Harry walked down the hallway. "The healers won't let us see her."

"We already know who's doing it," said Parvati who joined up with them.

"Yeah, but they won't believe us," said Harry. Hermione stopped and pointed just ahead of her.

"Heads up," she muttered. They stopped a looked. Malfoy and his gang of black were comming towards them, none of them making eye contact with anyone. Leonard Baynes, the largest and roughest Hufflepuff in their house grabbed Malfoy by the shoulder and pushed him against the wall. The other people in black just stared silently.

"I'm not afraid of ghosts," he said menacingly. Malfoy said nothing, and tried to slip past him. Leonard pinned him to the wall again. "What could a ghost ever do to me? Tell Abel that his noose is cooked and so is yours!"

"What did I do?" he asked, not even fighting back.

"You're weird! That costs extra around here. Give me some money." He reached in Malfoy's trench coat pocket and pulled out a bag full of knuts. Malfoy was pushed into the wall one last time before Leonard walked off with a smile on his face. Pansy hurried in the opposite dirrection, followed by Malfoy.

"Never thought I'd feel sorry for Malfoy," said Hermione as she watched them go.

"I don't," said Ron. "C'mon. Let's go." They left for their next class silently, Hermione glancing back to see where Malfoy and Pansy were going.

Pansy walked into the Library and sat at a table, burrying her face in her arms. Malfoy sat next to her and stroked her back.

"Hey, it's alright," he said softly. "It'll be okay."

"I can't stand this anymore," said Pansy. "I've done almost everything I can to get them to leave me alone and they don't."

"But look around you," said Malfoy. "Abel's got our backs. All we have to do is show him which one. Now that's real power." Pansy sighed and forced a smile as Malfoy kissed her on the cheek and embraced her. "It'll be alright," he whispered.


	3. Arguement of Absolutes

"Apparently they were highly reccomended after helping out in that drug bust two days ago," said Mcgonagall to Dumbledore. Harry and Hermione were sitting in front of his desk, and Tonks was standing nearby. "They just might pull this off."

"And, if they do they will be allowed to join a small organization for young special agents," said Tonks. "In return they'll learn self defense with and without a wand, school tuitions will be payed for, and they will recieve scholarships to the collage of their choosing. There's even an optional FBI training coarse." Harry and Hermione's eyes widened and they looked at Dumbledore.

"Please let us try this!" pleaded Hermione. Dumbledore smiled and noddded.

"This will remain secret from your families, and if you get into serious danger you will be taken away from the situation until it is safe. You do understand this don't you?"

"Yes sir," they said in unison.

"Lupin will be working with us too," said Tonks. "He's posing as a janitor, while searching for clues. Along with his partner, Max."

"Who's Max?" asked Hermione.

"He's a golden retriever," said Tonks. "Trained to sniff out drugs. It took a while to convince Filch to allow this."

They chuckled, and Dumbledore sent them on their way. Once they were out the door, Hermione jumped up with a cheer and hugged Harry.

Hermione glanced around the room at all the glum faces. Yes, she thought to herself. It was that time of day again. Fourth period class, and no way of avoiding it. When she had first heard of the class where they were to discuss major world issues and give their own opinion, she had thought it was be a great idea. That was until she met professor Micheals, a headstrong man who always thought his opinion meant more to the world than anyone else's. Today's topic was freedom of religion and what should or should not be allowed in schools, and the present arguement between Micheals and Parvati was going nowhere.

"No," said Micheals in his nasaly tone. "You can't pray in school, because then you'd be imposing your morality on me." Hermione rolled her eyes and raised her hand. "Yes, Miss Granger."

"So what your saying then, Professor, is that imposing your morality on someone else is wrong?" she asked. He nodded.

"Precisely." He turned to jot something on the board, but Hermione wasn't finished yet.

"But then," she interrupted. "Aren't you imposing your morality on me by saying it's wrong?" There were scattered giggles from the students, but Micheals was not amused.

"Right and wrong should be left up to the individual," he replied. Hermione shook her head.

"You don't believe that, sir."

"Of coarse I do. What I am trying to teach all of you is that dealing with other religions is an ethical thing."

"Alright," cut in Hermione, much to his annoyance. "So then if a terrorist goes and murders thousands of innocent people because he thinks he's right, can you say he's wrong?"

"Of coarse I can," he said.

"So then," said a voice in the back. "You don't really believe that right and wrong should be left up to the individual." He turned, ignoring the student and went up to the board. He wrote the word 'Absolutes' on there and then turned to the class, pointing to it with his wand.

"Absolutes," he said, as if the class couldn't read. "What do you believe about absolutes? Yes, Parvati."

"Well," she said, a little nervous to be put in the spotlight. "For me, I haven't made the decision, but my parents keep saying that there are no absolutes." Micheals smiled, not to Hermione's surprise.

"They are correct, Miss Patil. There are no absolutes."

"Are you sure?" asked Malfoy from behind Hermione. Micheals looked up, surprised to hear Malfoy speaking up in his class.

"Yes, I'm sure," he answered firmly.

"Are you absolutely sure?" pressed Malfoy.

"Yes," said Micheals. There was scattered laughter in the classroom.

"Then that's an absolute," said Hermione, who noticed that Micheals didn't see what was so funny. "And I supose now you are going to say that there is no such thing as right and wrong?"

"Eventually, if people would stop interrupting with their smart remarks, Miss Granger." She shook her head, but said nothing. "Repeating what Hermione said, there is no such thing as right or wrong."

"Is that statement you just made right or wrong?" asked Malfoy. The students started laughing, and Malfoy sat back, a hint of his old prideful self starting to show. Hermione turned to him.

"Now Malfoy, I understand what he's trying to say," she said out loud. She turned to Micheals with an innocent face. "He's saying there's no right or wrong answer to anything, am I right?"

"Yes," growled Micheals, who had about had enough.

"So I suppose then that you won't be grading our homework," she finished, grinning as he became more frustrated. The students began cheering, and as if on cue, the bell rang and they began to leave. Hermione was almost out the door when he grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back, staring at her menacingly.

"What do you think you are trying to prove, Granger?" he growled. Malfoy stepped up, and pushed Micheals back so he let go of Hermione.

"What are you so mad about?" he asked haugtily. "It's not her fault you keep hexing yourself in the foot." They both left, and Hermione was stopped again by Goyle, much to her surprise. He was the only one of Malfoy's friends that hadn't joined their gang.

"That was pretty cool the way you stood up to Micheals," he said, not really looking her in the eye. She was a little shocked to hear this from him, but nodded just the same.

"Thanks," she said softly, and then turned and left. As she walked, a member of Ravenclaw walked alongside of her. His name was Blake Hornsby, and was known as one of the cutest boys on the Ravenclaw qudditch team. She glanced at him to let him know she saw him, and he grinned.

"That was quite a performance in there," he complimented. "Are you a book worm or something?"

"Or something," she answered, still not looking at him.

"Do you believe in the hereafter?" he asked. She nodded and smirked.

"Most definently." He stepped in front of her, and she looked at him for the first time.

"Good," he answered. "So then you must know what I'm hereafter." She smirked and looked him in the eyes.

"And you must know, you won't get it," she answered, and then walked off to lunch.


	4. Abel Frye's History

Harry walked down the hall with Ron, Neville, and Seamus, all of them griping about potions class. Neville had gotten a pair of glasses this year, and with them recieved a lifetime of harrasment from all the Slytherins, all of them except for the ones in Malfoy's gang, which was still shocking.

Just as they were about to enter the great hall, Leonard Baynes' large form approached them, and he stole Neville's glasses. Blake hornsby was with him, laughing as Leonard harrased Neville. Harry glanced at a group of girls, and spotted Hermione who was watching Blake with a frown.

"You can see to Jamaica with these things!" laughed Leonard. He tossed them to Blake, who tossed them back, Neville leaping up and down for them.

"C'mon you guys. Give them back!" he shouted angrilly. Blake laughed as he tossed them back to Leonard, but then glanced over at Hermione, noticing her frown. His smile faded and he turned to Leonard.

"Hey, Lenny, give him back his glasses," he said. Leonard grunted and tossed them on the floor at Neville's feet. Seamus reached into his pocket and pulled out some money.

"Here," he said handing it to Leonard. "Just take it and go." Leonard smiled and walked off with Blake. Seamus sighed and turned to Harry and Ron. "I don't have the money to keep paying these guys." Neville glanced over at Malfoy.

"Malfoy seems to have something going," he muttered. "Yesterday he let two Hufflepuffs and a Ravenclaw join him. Maybe we should talk to him. We've got nothing left to loose."

Seamus nodded and they both walked off. Ron and Harry stayed though. "They've gone mad!" exclaimed Ron. "And since when was Malfoy the one we turned to for protection?" Harry shook his head.

"All I know is I'd just as soon join the death eaters than join with them," he said, rolling his eyes. "C'mon, lets get a seat. Hermione said that someone was going to tell the story of this Abel Frye. Maybe we can find out what's going on around here."

Hermione didn't really hear what the girls were saying. She was too busy staring at...

"Blake Hornsby," laughed Parvati. Hermione jumped out of thought and turned around. "Don't even bother. The line's already formed to get Blake, and there's not cuts." Hermione smirked and nodded.

"Don't you want to hear the rest of the story?" asked another girl. Parvati groaned.

"C'mon. I am so sick of that story," she muttered.

"The thing is, this ain't just a story," said the girl. Hermione took a sip of water and nodded.

"Go on," she said, noticing that Harry and Ron had both tunned in now.

"Abel Frye was an annoying little jerk," said Parvati. "He was seeing this girl who was hooked up with the biggest hunk in their house who was also Abel's worst enemy."

"That's a diss written to heaven," said the other girl.

"So," continued Parvati. "One day she just sprinted on him, big time. In front of the whole school. Had him crying like a baby. So the next night he lured her into the forbidden wing and stabbed-"

"I heard gutted," said the other girl.

"Forbidden wing?" asked Hermione.

"Any place where someone dies is forbidden as far as I'm concerned."

Parvati reached into her bag and pulled out a copy of a drawing and handed it to Hermione. The drawing was of a boy who was about to hang himself.

"Look at this," said Parvati, as if they hadn't already. "After he killed her, he hung himself. Now his ghost wanders the halls, taking revenge on everyone, except for those who call on him."

"Like Malfoy and his out-to-lunch bunch?" asked Hermione. She placed the drawing on the table. "Where'd you get this?" she asked.

"It one of Pansy Parkinson's drawings. There are copies all over the school." Hermione glanced over at Pansy who was currently bent of a sketchbook.

"I didn't know she could draw," she muttered.

"There have been four people sent to the hospital already," said Tonks to Snape as they walked down the hall. "Why hasn't the school been closed?"

"Half of the parents want us to close," said Snape. "The other half want to see their kids graduate on time. The ministry of magic claims they want to see more proof before shutting down the school."

"So they're just going to wait until somebody dies?" she asked. "Or is that not evidence enough?"

Snape shrugged cooly, and pulled out an old photograph, the name 'Abel Frye' was written on the bottom. "The majority of the school has seen this by now. Abel has become quite the legend. Almost more famous than Potter, if that's even possible."

Pansy felt the paper she was drawing on get pulled away, and she waited, watching Leonard's large shadow on the table. She knew he would recognize the fat bastard in a football uniform, haning in a noose. There came a growl behind her and she smirked.

"Anyone you know?" she asked. Leonard made a fist and was ready to strike her, when Blake came up from behind and grabbed hold of his arm.

"Man, it ain't even worth it," he said. Leonard eased up, but turned to Malfoy instead and pulled him out of his chair.

"Do you know how easy it would be for me to break you?" he roared. Malfoy stared at him, completely unmiffed. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Potter rise up from his seat and approach Leonard from behind.

"Escuse me!" he called.

"Watch this," said Hermione with a smile to the group of girls who were watching in shock.

"Excuse me!" called Harry again.

"Back off!" shouted Leonard, but Harry did not let off.

"Hey!" he called Leonard turned and raised a fist.

"I said back-" but before he could finish and land his blow, Harry caught hold of his arm, twisted it behind his back and pinned him to the table, his arm in a painful posistion. There were gasps around the room, and Pansy had jumped up and moved out of the way. Leonard's arm was throbbing and he was afraid that if he fought back now, his arm would break. "Blake, have you got my back?" he called. Blake glanced at Harry.

"Fighting nerds? I don't roll like that bro," he said as he walked off. Harry let go, and Leonard walked out of the dinning hall, trying to ignore the pointed fingers and the 'oooh!' from the students. Harry put Malfoy's chair back in place and went back to his own table, not expecting a 'thankyou' from any of them.


	5. Of Soda Straws and Hex Marks

Lupin stood outside Ginny Weasley's locker, his partner, Max, sniffing the items that were presented to him. Standing behind him was Mcgonagall, handing him bags when he needed them.

"So far we know that it wasn't any drugs," said Lupin. "Unless she had sniffed something before the game, which I highly doubt."

"So do I, Remus," said Mcgonagall. Lupin pulled out Ginny's jacket and had Max sniff it. He began barking and wimpering, and Lupin looked at Mcgonagall.

"It's in here. What do you smell Max?" He reached in the pocket and pulled out her wallet. Max pawed it and wimpered. Lupin reached in, but all he found was a fifty dollarbill. Max reacted to the bill alone now, and not to the wallet or the jacket. Mcgonagall handed Lupin a bag, and he placed both the wallet and the money into it. He dug around some more until he found something strange. Pulling it out with his rubber gloved hand he showed it to Mcgonagall.

"A soda straw?" he muttered. He held it in front of Max, but there was no reaction. He took a bag from Mcgonagall anyway and bagged the straw. "Give these to Tonks. She should be in Snape's classroom. Tell her what Max reacted to, please." Mcgonagall nodded.

"I will," she said and started to leave, when Lupin called her back. He pointed to a marking inside the locker and she stared at it, being able to tell what it was within seconds.

"It's some sort of hex mark," said Lupin. "In the shape of a hanging man. I think Abel's been here."

"So," muttered Hermione to Parvatti as they walked down the hallway. "Where did Abel Frye stretch his neck?"

"In the forbidden wing," said Parvatti. "Be we don't want to go in there."

"Why not?" asked the other girl. "Come on, we'll show you where."

"But we're not going in," repeated Parvatti. They lead Hermione down some halls she had never been to before, and came to a stop in front of a cage wall that was locked.

"People say that Dumbledore had this area locked up so that no one would disrupt the dead. Some good it did us."

Hermione picked the lock while the other girl was talking, and pulled it open. "Hey," she said. "It's open." She pulled out the lock and opened the cage wall. She was the first to step inside, soon followed by Parvatti and the other girl.

"Guys, if you look up 'forbidden' in the dictionary, you'll find a picture of people who died snooping around," said Parvatti.

"The ghost was released when Filch went to clean this place," said the other girl.

"So he's after the caretaker, not us," said Hermione. "C'mon. It's not like he's still in there." They followed her until she came to a set of stairs that she began to walk up alone.

"What is she doing?" muttered Parvatti. "She's insane!" Hermione disappeared at the top as she turned a corner, and secretly she was happy that they hadn't followed he. She pulled out her wand and lit it, looking around curiously. All she found was abandoned classrooms and hallways. Nothing special, but still a bit of an eerie tone in the air.

"You okay girl?" came Parvatti's voice from downstairs.

"Yeah," called Hermione. "You'll know if I'm not." She continued on down a hall, but her light went out within two steps. "Lumos!" she whispered. It flickered on and off. "Lumos!" she said again, stronger and it lit. The light struck something with large yellow eyes and fangs, and she fell backwards with a scream as something hit her on the head.

Madam Pomfrey looked her down one last time and nodded. "You'll be fine, Miss Granger," she said softly. "You've got a nasty bump on your head, but you'll be fine." She nodded, and as if on cue, Tonks, Harry, and Lupin all stepped in.

"I heard some ghost gave you a beatdown," said Harry with a grin. She rolled her eyes at him.

"What did you see before you were knocked out?" asked Lupin.

"Stars," she muttered. Harry snickered.

"She's almost back to normal."

"Before that," said Tonks with a smirk.

"I saw somebody," she muttered painfully.

"From this world... or the next?" said Harry in a fake eerie tone. She elbowed him in the ribs and he stopped immediatly.

"I don't remember who it was," she said softly.

"From now on, nobody enters that wing without clearing it with us," said Tonks. "Is that understood? Both of you?"

"Yes Tonks," said Harry.


	6. The Face in the Window

Harry and Hermione were excused to leave to the ministry of magic for training classes, and to see if there were any important discoveries from Ginny's locker. Both Harry and Hermione had courses together, except for one that they had chosen. Harry had picked FBI training, while Hermione chose driver's ed.

Harry spent the next two hours learning techniques like searching for fingerprints and DNA. He also learned self defense skills and how to break down a door if he needed to. Hermione learned the rules of the road, and because of how fast she was learning, she walked out with her license by the time the two hours were up (she had already gotten her permit during the summer with her parents). Harry had a few more FBI courses to finish before he could take driver's ed and get his license. When they were through, both of them discussed their classes as they headed down to where Tonks and Lupin were.

"I can't believe we can't get attached to anyone while we're doing this," said Hermione. "Do they expect us to have no social life?"

"You agreed to this," said Harry. "Besides, you have to admit, a scholarship to the collage of our choice is really great."

"Yes, it really is, Harry, but don't you see that now we won't have anything consistent in our lives anymore, we'll be moving around a lot. I mean, I do love this opportunity, but don't you think it'll be hard?"

"All the good things are, Hermione. And plus, I can finally get away from the Dursleys."

"I'll miss staying at home all the time. I may even miss getting grounded." Harry raised an eyebrow.

"Well, you know I could go talk to Lupin, see if I can get him to ground you." She laughed and nudged him.

Tonks held the soda straw up closer and squinted. "Some sort of crystalling deposits have been placed in both ends," she said, handing it to Lupin. He placed it under a microscope and got a closer look, when out of the corner of his eye he saw two figures in black try to sneak by. He poked his head up and smirked at Harry and Hermione.

"Well," he said, getting their attention. "Don't you two look lovely." They were both wearing black shirts and pants, along with some equipment used for spying.

"We were just coming to ask you," said Hermione, looking innocent.

"Funny," said Lupin. "It looked like you were heading right out the door."

"Some of the Hufflepuffs said they can hear the ghost at night right after dinner," said Harry. Hermione held up a digital recorder.

"We wanted to put a digital recorder in the forbidden wing since it's right underneath the Hufflepuff house," said Hermione. Lupin nodded and Tonks smirked.

"I'll get right on it and get back to you in a couple of hours," he said. Both Harry and Hermione sighed.

"We knew you were going to say that," said Harry. "The Hufflepuffs said that they heard the ghost between the hours of six and nine. Like, right now."

Lupin glanced at his watch, and Hermione turned to Tonks.

"Please, Tonks?" she pleaded.

"I'm not falling for the face," said Tonks. Lupin glanced at her.

"You mean you're not... falling for the face again."

Hermione stared at her, and Tonks sighed.

"Oh, fine," she said. Lupin reached over and handed Hermione the car keys. "Here are the keys to the car," he said. "I'll owl Snape and let him know you're coming. Be smart and back each other up." Hermione nodded and Harry smiled.

"Thankyou sir," he said as they turned to leave.

"Wait!" called Tonks. She handed Hermione a blue disk. "The disk only runs for twelve hours. You're going to have to replace it regularly." They waved and left out the door. Lupin held the straw up to Max again. Max sniffed it and walked off.

"Look," he muttered. "He doesn't react to this, but he reacts to the fifty." Max walked over to Tonks and started his usual wining ruetine to get a treat.

"Max," said Tonks. "Max, what are you telling me?" she asked as she reached for the treats.

"He's saying call Algeron," said Lupin as he headed to the back for the phone.

As Hermione got into the driver's seat and buckled up, Harry sat down, but glanced at her. "Hey," he said. "How about I drive?"

"You don't get your license for another two weeks," she said as she placed the key in the ignition.

"Dear FBI training course,

Even though I am trained in driving, waiting until I've had my permit for a certain amount of time is an unpleasant rule. Fighting, self defense, and FBI skills are not to be belittled," He quoted, making Hermione snicker.

"Well since you chose FBI training over driver's ed, now you can beat up the car, and I can drive it," she said, and with that, Harry buckled up and they pulled out.

Hermione led Harry to the forbidden wing, and they thuroughly serched the empty rooms and halls. Harry's wand light hit something and he smirked. It was a chair with an old toy robot that had a Halloween mask on it and a black cloak. Underneath it was a sign that said, "Stay Out!" in red paint, making it look like blood.

"There's your ghost," he said to Hermione.

"But what hit me?" she asked. Harry glanced back at an old scaffolding, and a large hollow pipe (not very heavy) laying tipped over on the ground.

"You fell on this," he said, pointing to the back of the scaffolding. "Which knocked the scaffolding and made this pipe fall on your head. It's FBI deductive reasoning."

"That was a correspondence course," she said, rolling her eyes. "Let's just find a spot for the recorder."

"Here," he said, pointing to a hole that had been knocked into the wall. It was just the right size. He placed the recorder in, and Hermione muttered a spell that would make it work.

"There," she said. "Let's go. Or would you like to check for fingerprints, Mr. FBI?"

"No," he said shaking his head. "Kids pull pranks all the time. Fingerprints won't do any good. So, Hermione, do you have a thing for Blake?" She turned red.

"I barely know him," she said. "We're here to do a job, okay?"

"You know, for one moment I thought you were a regular teenaged girl with crushes and boys you'd die for."

"Sorry to disappoint."

They walked down the hall, and headed to the stairs when they heard a sort of dull rumble. They stopped and listened. The rumble gradually turned to the sound of voices chanting something. Hermione's blood turned cold, and she turned back with Harry, looking around to find where the sound was coming from. Harry stopped by a vent and listened in.

"It's coming from here," he said. Hermione leaned in and they listened for a while.

"It's gone," she whispered. They turned and headed for the stairs again. Hermione glanced at the door and saw a face was pressed up against the glass. She screamed and Harry grabbed her.

"What? What is it?" he asked.

"There's someone down there!" she cried. Harry glanced and noticed whatever it was pulling back and running off. It was too dark to determine the face. They ran after it and outside of the school where it disappeared altogether.

"Where'd he go?" asked Harry. They heard a rustled near a fence, and they hurried in to a door to the old school boiler room.

"The door's jammed," said Hermione after trying to open it. Harry moved her aside.

"Let me try. This is an old FBI technique." He raised his foot and pounded it on the door, and lept back with a cry of pain. Hermione laughed.

"Oh wow," she laughed. "Can you teach me that?"

"Shut up. I'm going to find something to unjam it." Hermione stayed where she was and looked around. She looked up and saw the shadow of someone crouched on all fours on the fence behind her (there was a dumpster behind the fence). Turning around quickly with a yelp, her light landed in Malfoy's face, who was crouched on the dumpster like a cat.

"Hush!" he hissed. "You trying to wake the dead?" Harry came back after hearing Hermione and looked up at Malfoy.

"I understand that's your job," shot back Hermione.

"All black clothes, sneaking around at night," said Malfoy. "Looks to me like you're trying to sneak into someone else's business. I wouldn't do that."

"Well you see," started Harry. "The funny thing is she heard a-" but Malfoy had jumped down and was gone on his broom.

(A/N: One... two... Abel's coming for you... Three... four... better lock the door... Five... six... get a crucifix... Seven... eight... better stay up late... Nine... ten... never sleep again...

Or something like that. Hehehe. Yeah, I've got too much free time. Please review!)


	7. No One Cares

Leonard headed to his locker the next morning after talking to his girlfriend and harrassing Malfoy's gang. His thick head was filled with the pleasure of causing them pain, and he bent down to pick up his books when he spotted something. The hangman hexmark.

That day during Slytherin quidditch practice, he found Malfoy and pulled him out by the collar, into the locker room, and slammed him against the wall. With him was one of his goonies. "Call off your ghost!" he shouted in Malfoy's face, which had contorted in pain from having a locker handle rammed into his back. He looked at Leonard menacingly.

"Why, you scared?" he hissed.

"Call off the ghost, man! Enough is enough!" roared Leonard.

"But then you'll miss out on all this fun." There was the sound of the locker room door opening, and Pansy ran in, looking frightened.

"Draco, what's going on?-" she was cut off then Leonard's goonie pinned her to the lockers and search through her pockets, Pansy screaming the entire time. He found her pocket mirror and threw it to the ground, breaking it. Snape stepped in, just in time, and pinned both Leonard and his goonie to the wall.

"Enough! Both of you!" he shouted. He looked at Malfoy and Pansy. "You two may go."

Malfoy and Pansy left, Pansy in tears, and Flint walked in.

"Is there a problem here?" he asked.

"No," called Leonard.

"Yes," said Snape. Flint smirked.

"Why don't you two sit on the bench for the rest of practice. Now!" They obeyed and Snape rolled his eyes. "Malfoy," laughed Flint. "A week body, the result of a week mind."

"Don't tell me you don't see the strong ones pick on the weak ones," said Snape. Flint shrugged.

"The way I see it, the strong ones triumph over the weak ones. And we the strong go far in life." Snape reached up and pulled Flint's pinky in an unnatural dirrection, but did not break it. Flint gasped in pain.

"Only strength is our weakest link, wouldn't you agree Flint?"

"Yeah," he gasped and Snape let go and left.

Malfoy kicked the fence to the quidditch field angrily with a growl, while Pansy sat in the stands, scribbling in her sketch book.

"What did we ever do to them?" she asked angrily, tearing out the page in her book. Malfoy shook his head.

"Nothing," he spat. "Just be different. That's all it took." He turned and saw Harry handing Pansy a small broken mirror. His eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Where did you get that?" he asked in a harsh tone. Harry paid it no heed, knowing they had a reason to be upset, and he looked at Pansy.

"Professor Snape wanted me to ask you if this is yours," he said softly, no hint of malice in his voice. It was almost as though he were talking to a friend. Pansy cringed at the mirror.

"It was," she answered miserably.

"You need to report this," said Harry.

"Oh that's a wonderful idea!" she said sarcastically. "I wonder why I didn't think of it three mirrors ago."

"You don't have to put up with this. Someone can do something..."

"Someone already has," said Malfoy. Pansy sensed an arguement, and walked back towards the school.

"Messing around with spirits is dangerous," said Harry.

"Yeah, well so is this school," said Malfoy coldly.

"You don't know what's behind that door that you're opening." He placed a hand on Malfoy's shoulder, but he sneered and tore free.

"I do," he snarled. "Abel's one of us. He's the only hope we've got in this place." He turned and started to walk off, but Harry grabbed him again to stop him.

"He's not," he said firmly. Malfoy looked angrily at him. "Trust me, he's not."

"You know you should really stay out of our business!" he growled, tearing free again. "It could go really bad for you and Hermione," he added before walking off.

"I hope Leonard, and all of them die!" hissed Pansy as she went to her locker, making sure Hermione heard as she passed her. Hermione turned and looked at her in surprise.

"Excuse me?" she asked softly. Pansy sneered, opening her locker in fury.

"Oh, did I say that out loud?" she asked in fake innocence. She cringed at Hermione again and continued to dig through her locker.

"Pansy," said Hermione. "I know I don't know you very well, but I do care about you." Pansy slammed her locker shut and walked off, but Hermione caught up to her. "Pansy! Pansy!"

"What were you doing outside the school last night?" she demmanded as she whipped around. "If you really do care, stay out. Certain forces are now in motion, and now nobody can change what's about to happen." She walked off, leaving Hermione to stare. Giving up, she turned and headed to her first period class. There was no one there yet, so she set her bag down on her desk, and thought about what had just happened.

"Who's your friend? Say hi to your friend," came a voice. She turned and almost fell over. The last person she expected to see, was holding a rat in the palm of his hand and watching it in facination. Goyle.

"That's one way to get a date," she said with a smirk as she aproached him. He looked at her, and blushed a little. Maybe he and Crabbe weren't so bad when Malfoy wasn't around? "Who's that?" she asked, petting the rat.

"Uh, this is Sarah. I bought her this year, but she stays here. Most of the other Slytherins like to use rats for magic experiments and stuff," he said. Hermione moved to the next animal cage where there were two lizards.

"What about these two?" she asked, getting a closer look.

"Max and Casper. They're from Africa." She turned and looked at him.

"What were you doing there?" she asked kindly, knowing he was warming up to her.

"Science camp trip. We studied the different animals and I brought these two back. Mum didn't really appreciate it though." Hermione snickered and he smirked, placing Sarah back in her cage.

Hermione walked over to a tank with a large snake in it.

"What about this one?" she asked. He looked over.

"That's Doris. Doris is a ball python."

"From Africa?"

"From the pet shop." He walked over and took the top off. "I don't like it when the kids tap on the cages and drive them crazy. Everybody needs a friend." He reached in an took it out slowly, and Hermione lightly stroked the back, feeling the scales and looking at the large black diamonds on the snake's back. Goyle looked at her, and gently handed the snake to her. Hermione smiled as Doris' head slythered around on her hand.

"Wow," said Goyle. "Most girls wouldn't."

"Please," she snickered. "She reminds me of a guy I almost dated." Moving slowly, she draped the snake around her neck, but made sure Doris didn't go around her neck completely. Goyle smiled as he watched.

"Be careful," he said softly. Hermione smiled, and thought for a moment how different this was from the Goyle she had learned to distrust. Maybe not all Slytherin's were all that bad. He reached over and took Doris back and placed her in the tank.

Parvati walked into the room and saw Hermione and Goyle, watching the snake. "Oh, hi," she said. Hermione glanced up. "I'm going," she said gesturing out the door. Hermione grabbed her stuff and walked off with her. As they passed the air vent, Parvati suddenly stopped and looked at it curiously.

"What?" asked Hermione.

"Did you hear that?" she asked. They waited a moment, and Parvati shrugged. "Weird. C'mon." They walked off together in silence.


	8. Blake Hornsby's Locker

Lupin looked up when the door to the lab opened, and an old man with white hair, coke-bottle glasses, and a banjo case (along with many other bags) strapped over his back, walked in. He smiled, and stood up to greet the man. Tonks was in the room soon, and smiled at him.

"Doctor Algeron Wheeling," she said, shaking his hand. "The accoustic professor." He smiled.

"The accoustic professor," he repeated. "I like that. I like that a lot." He set his things down, and Lupin placed them near the sofa.

"Can we get you something to drink?" he offered.

"Tea would be great," he said, pulling out his banjo. Luping went into the back, and Tonks walked up to Algeron.

"Do you have the test results?" she asked.

"Yes," he said, reaching into his briefcase and handing her a manilla envelope. She opened it and fliped through a few of the pages, stopping on one to read the results. Her face changed to confused, and she glanced at him.

"Sugar?" she asked. He nodded.

"Yes. Sugar. In both ends. Both ends of the straw."

"Triconal?" she read. "What's that?"

"Well, Triconal is an additive placed in most paints and stains." Lupin handed him his tea, and he thanked him with a wide smile. Tonks sat down in her computer chair and set the papers on the desk.

"But why?" she asked.

"Well, I... I don't know why. But I know where," he said, sipping his tea. "Wood," he said, pointing to the wooden cabinets. "Any wood with finishing on it, or stain."

"Dr. Algeron, we're trying to narrow our search, not expand it," she said, leaning back.

"Let's just handle one detail at a time," he said, sitting down again. Lupin made Tonks move from her seat so he could open up a program on the computer. He placed the blue disk into the digital recorder and played it.

"Listen," he said to Tonks. "Playing it regularly doesn't make any sense. It sounds like another language, but listen to what happens when you play it backwards." He pressed a button, and they listened closely.

"aaayynesss...... Leeeoooonaaaarrrrrrd....... Baaaayyyynnnesssss........"

"Did you hear that?" he asked them both. They listened carefully again, when Algeron spoke up.

"Leonard... Baynes," he said, glancing up at them. "Someone you know?"

Leonard entered potions class, sweating and looking angrier than before. When they had to start working on their potions, he did not shove people out of his way like he always did, and he even ignored some of the snyde comments about being pinned yesterday by skinny Harry Potter.

"Hey, Leonard," called a voice in the back. "I heard that the ghost is after you now." There was a laugh, and Leonard sneered.

"Shut up!" he shouted.

"Hey, Lenny, if you die, can I date your girl?" asked another voice.

"I said shut up!" he shouted even louder. He continued working on his potion, and stopped for a second, looking around, looking very dazed. The two mocking boys' smiles faded and they watched. Leonard backed away from his potion and started dodging around and knocking over cauldrons, all the while shouting in terror and waving his fists at an unseen foe. A minute later he was on the ground writhing around and shouting out, "Abel Frye!"

"Professor Snape!" called one of the boys, and Snape came out of his office to see what was happening.

Tonks and Snape walked into Dumbledore's office to find Lupin already arguing with him on what was to happen now. The three of them had all seen enough, and they knew Dumbledore had too. At least they could only hope he had.

"Leonard's in the hospital right now. Things are not looking good, Albus," said Lupin.

"He had the hanging hex mark on his locker just like the others," said Tonks. Dumbledore nodded and sighed.

"I realize this, but a simple mark on the locker isn't enough proof for the ministry," he said mournfully. "They want more proof I'm afraid."

"What about a recording of a ghost calling his name?" said Hermione as she and Harry stepped in.

"Thomason, Astin, Boltz, Weasley, and now Baynes. It's time for you to close the school before there's more victims," said Snape.

"Believe me, Severus, nothing matters to me more right now than the safety of our students, but the ministry simply won't allow us to close until they've seen enough," he said, frowning.

"What more could they want?" demanded Harry. "Students are going to die if this isn't stopped!"

"Who else hangs with this crowd?" asked Lupin to the others.

"Well... there's..." muttered Harry.

"Blake," spoke up Hermione. "Blake Hornsby."

Blake was called out of class almost immediatly, and they went to his locker and began to search through it. He was frustrated, and thought he was in trouble now.

"You should check Malfoy's locker instead of mine," he growled. Lupin pulled out a picture from the back of the locker and uncovered something scratched into the paint.

"It's a hangman," he said to Tonks and Snape. Blake's eyes widened.

"So they're after me now?" he asked. Dumbledore walked up to him.

"When was the last time you went through this locker?" asked Tonks.

"Two weeks ago."

"Blake," said Dumbledore. "Just as a precaution I want you to take some time off of school and go to the ministry department for a few days to be checked for hexes," he said softly.

"What?!"

"Just as a precaution." He stormed off to the Ravenclaw house, muttering under his breath.

"I don't believe this!" he snarled.

Dumbledore frowned and turned to the others. "Tell the students to keep they're eyes open, and if a hangman appears in their lockers to report it immediatly." They nodded, and Lupin returned to searching through the locker. Max sniffed something and started whining and barking to get their attention. Tonks looked into the locker where Max's nose was exploring and drew out another soda straw, identical to the one in Ginny's locker and the one they had uncovered an hour ago from Leonard's locker.

"That's strange," said Lupin. Snape raised an eyebrow.

"What is?" he asked cooly.

"Max didn't respond to the other two straws. Why this one?" He bagged the straw and handed it to Tonks, and then took it to the ministry to be tested.

Hermione wandered around outside of the school, thinking to herself and hugging herself tightly. What Pansy had said to her that morning had startled her, and all she could think about was how Pansy could have been angered to the point of wanting Leonard Baynes and the others dead. She also thought about Abel Frye. That story had not been placed in 'Hogwarts: A History,' so it either meant that it was made up, or it was a new thing. The thought of a ghost haunting the schools, a deadly one at that, scared her a little and she could only pray that it'd be over soon.

"Hey, Granger!" came a voice, and she turned to see Blake approaching her. She looked him over. He was a tall, muscular person, black skin, and an attractive face. She had seen right through him a long time ago and knew he only picked on people when he was with his wolf pack.

"Hi, Blake," she said as he caught up to her.

"Someone told me you might be out here," he said softly.

"I just had some things on my mind that I needed to sort out," she said, blushing a little. He nodded.

"Yeah, I know what you mean. Things are starting to get messed up around here." She looked at him for a moment.

"Do you want to go for a walk?" she offered. He nodded, and followed her around, listening to her thoughts and feelings.

"Now watch," said Lupin to Tonks. They were in the astronomy tower with Max, having him re-sniff some of the items removed from the three lockers. Lupin held up Ginny's wallet and Max started barking. He reached in and pulled out the fifty which cause Max to bark even more frantically as he sniffed it. "Look at that. He reacts to the fifty," Lupin muttered. Tonks watched closely as Lupin pulled out the soda straws. Max first sniffed the one from Ginny's locker and the one from Leonards locker, not reacting to either, but when he sniffed the one from Blake's locker he started howling and pawing at it.

"But he reacts to that one," muttered Tonks. "Why this one and not the other one? And if the straws have anything to do with it, Blake should have been the first to go. This was in there for two weeks."

Lupin sighed and closed up the bin with the items Max had reacted to. Max sat there, panting and brushing against him. Lupin smiled and stroked the dog gently, but turned when Tonks spoke up again. "Whoa," she muttered. She held the straw from Blake's locker up to the light and pointed to two small shadows inside. "What's this?"

"So aren't you afraid that you'll be next?" asked Hermione to Blake, who had just told her about what they had found in his locker.

"I don't know. I guess I should be after how we treated them," he said sadly. "We were kind of rough on them," he admitted.

"Why?" she asked. "They seemed to have let up this year. Why are you tormenting them when they haven't presented a reason to justify your ways?"

"There's no good reason, and that's just it," he said softly. "Being even a little prejudice is just stupid." She smirked a little and took his hand in hers as they headed back to the castle. Once they were in plain veiw of Hogwarts, she stopped and looked at her watch.

"I have to go do something," she said softly. "Sorry I can't invite you with. Closed quarters." He smirked and pointed to her arm.

"Speaking about closed quarters..." She looked and spotted a small black spider working its way up her arm. After giving a yelp, brushed it off, but when she looked up he moved in and kissed her quickly on the lips, catching her completely by surprise. She stared at him in complete shock, not sure of how to react, when Lupin's voice caught her attention as he called her.

"Coming!" she called back. She looked at Blake, her cheeks turning red. "Do me a favor," she said softly. He raised an eyebrow.

"Anything."

"Don't ever try that again." And with that she walked over to Lupin, who had a smile on his face that read, 'We are going to have a nice long talk when you come in.'

"Professor Lupin's back?" called Blake.

"Uh..." stuttered Hermione. "It's a looong story."

"You know we have a rule about getting too close with suspects," said Lupin. Hermione was sitting in a chair in the lab, Harry watching (containing his laughter poorly) and Tonks speaking up every now and then.

"I'm just trying to be convincing," stuttered Hermione, knowing that was the lamest excuse in the world.

"And that you are," said Tonks with a smirk.

"I guess I'm just a better actress then I thought I was." It was too late to stop the pathetic alliby now.

"You've even got me convinced," laughed Harry. Hermione sneered at him, and Lupin raised a hand to get him to be quiet.

"Blake is a suspect in this investigation."

"He's also my friend, assuming that I'm allowed to have friends," muttered Hermione. "Look, I don't mean to be disrespectful, but we have no friends, no social life whatsoever now. We've had to give that all up. There's nothing consitent now."

"I disagree," said Harry. "There's that consistent clunker of a rental car that we drive around that's way beyond its expiration date. I say we should upgrade to better, so I'll have something nice to drive when I get my license..." Hermione raised her eyebrows and turned back to Tonks and Lupin.

"Back on subject," she continued. "Blake's just a friend right now and he knows that... now. I hate being isolated from the others. I get so sick of it."

"Listen," said Lupin. "You knew what you were getting into when you started, and once this is solved, you'll be allowed to drop out if you wish to. But until then we do have rules." Hermione groaned and stood up, walking out of the room. Tonks sighed and looked at Harry.

"We're just trying to protect you guys," she said. Harry nodded. "Unfortunetly we need to get down to the other lab and take these things to Algeron, so until then just do as you're told, got it?" He nodded. "And stay around here until we get back incase the phone rings."


	9. The Witching Chamber

They left, and Hermione was back a half hour later with a Starbucks coffee cup in her hands. Harry was on the computer, trying to research Abel Frye's history.

"I think I might be on to something," He muttered. "Toss me that disk with the school files." Hermione stood up and walked over to the counter when the phone rang. She picked up the disk and answered the phone, carrying them both back to the sofa.

"Hello?" she asked. "No you just missed them. They went to Algeron's lab. Yes. I'll tell them... Okay... oh. Alright I will. Bye." She hung up and sat on the sofa, her face turning pale. Harry looked at her.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Leonard just lapsed into level two an hour ago. Almost a week sooner than the others." Harry stood up, shaking his head.

"We're running out of time. Where's that disk?"

"Oh no!" cried Hermione as she stood up. "Someone has to reload the recorder!"

"Oh," said Harry. "I'll do it."

"No, I'll go do it. It's okay. Have you seen my keys?" Harry glanced down on the counter and placed his hand over the pair of keys.

"No I haven't," he lied. "Do you want me to help you look?"

"No. It's alright, I'll use floo powder." She walked into the other room and came out with a small sack. "I'll be back soon," she said, and then left. Harry grabbed the disk and began to search through the files until he came to Abel Frye's .

"Yes," he muttered and scribbled down the house address. The house was only a few blocks away, and he grabbed the keys and headed out to the car with a smile on his face. He placed the keys into the ignition, but paused for a moment. "Weigh the alternatives," he muttered to himself. "Make a decision." He sat there for a moment...

(ten minutes later...)

"Black belt in karate," he said to himself aloud as a car drove past. "FBI training... Wizarding skills... and the world's BIGGEST loser!" He kicked off on his scooter and began to count the house numbers as he went by.

Hermione placed the recorder back in its hiding place, and proceeded down the steps, keeping her eyes on the door, relieved to see no one looking at her through the window. As she stepped outside, however, she heard footsteps running from her and in the direction of the boiler room. She ran after them and stopped when she came to the door. It was opened, and she wandered in, lighting her wand once she was inside. The air was musty and the smell of dust was there. The place seemed almost abandoned, but she wandered on into one dark room after another.

Harry looked up at the house. It was dark except for a light in one of the lower rooms, mostlikely the kitchen. He wandered on through the yard and went to the back to see if he could get a better look into the windows. The surroundings were dark since it was night time, and his leg went right into a tireswing and he fell with a grunt. As he stood up, he heard a rifel cock and felt the barrel press into the back of his neck.

"Stand up!" said a voice, it was a woman's. He obeyed and stood still, not daring to move, except to raise his hands in defeat. "Turn around." Slowly, the barrel still pressing into his neck, he turned and looked into the eyes of the woman. She was in her fourties by the look of it. Grey hair from stress and a few wrinkles, but extreme weariness in his features.

"I'm looking for Abel's sister," he said slowly.

"In the yard?" she asked suspiciously.

"Well I... does she live here?" The woman narrowed her eyes.

"Who wants to know?"

"A friend," he said, thinking quickly.

"I don't have any," she said, forcing him to back up a little.

"I'm sorry I disturbed you, Miss... uh..."

"Frye!" He looked at her.

"As in Abel Frye?"

"Who wants to know?" she asked deffensively. Harry was on to his last straw.

"Will you tell me about the boy who hurt so much he died to stop it?" he asked. The woman's gaze softened and she lowered her rifel.

Hermione wandered into the next room, which seemed smaller from the last. There were large air pipes around, but one got her attention. It was out of place and in the wall where it had covered was a square hole, big enough for her to fit through if she wanted. Looking around to make sure the coast was clear, she lifted herself up into it and crawled through the hole which led right into a short tunnel, a little bigger but too small to stand it. There was a large layer of dirt, but she crawled through it, not really caring how her clothes turned out.

Once she was through, she jumped out and looked around. There was nothing of interest in this room, so she went on into the next.

The kettle whistled on the stove, and Miss Frye poured tea for both of them and sat back down taking a photo with her. "It's bad enough that the hounded him when he was alive," she said softly. "But to keep those lies going on this long?" Harry didn't understand so she continued. "He never murdered Martha E. The poor thing died of meningitis. She was all he had left." She handed Harry the photo, and he saw it was of Abel Frye standing next to a chubby kid with black hair. Both were smiling. "Does this look like a murderer to you?" she asked. Harry shook his head.

"No," he answered.

"He wouldn't hurt a fly. The whole family loved my brother, and we thought it was the same at Hogwarts. It wasn't till after his death that we found out what they had been doing to him. Beating him up in the halls, throwing things at him, they even went through his things one time and destroyed them all, including the last photo he had of Martha." She blinked and two tears fell down her face. "There are those who want blood, who want to see pain, to cause it. I hope they rot in hell for what they did to my brother and to my... my family." Harry handed the photo back to her and sipped his tea, trying to absorb this all in.

There were lit candles all around, and when Hermione stepped into the chamber, she recognized the star painted on the floor, surrounded by hex marks and other wiccan signs. The candles were on the floor, hanging on the walls, and a few were on an alter that had been built. Above it was the hangman hex mark with what looked like blood surrounding it, and photos of different students around it. There was a voodoo doll of Leonard Baynes hanging over his picture, and all the pictures of students who were already victims were burned around the edges.

Hermione stared, slightly in shock, and could sense a sort of dark air around her that made her shiver. From the looks of it, a ceremony had been performed in there not too long ago. She moved on to a group of cloaks and monster masks that had hex marks drawn on them in black marker. She lifted the first mask and found nothing inside. The next one was also empty so she stopped there, expecting that they all were empty. The walls were covered in cobwebs and some bull skulls were hanging from the walls along with other skulls. Malfoy and his gang had really gone to town with decorating this room.

Deciding she needed a camera, she turned to retrieved her purse from outside when out of the corner of her eye she saw one of the cloaks shift. It was one of the ones she hadn't checked, and she wandered over, looking into the mask. A pair of eyes opened and looked back at her, and two large hands grabbed her by the arm and threw her to the ground. Hermione screamed and wrestled on the ground with the cloaked person until she felt his/her arm hook around her neck and squeeze tightly. She couldn't breathe and began kicking instead. The arm around her unhooked a little and she lowered her face and bit into it. The figure gave a cry of pain and let go almost immediatly.

Hermione was on her feet and running to the tunnel, but the hands grabbed her shoulders and slammed her into the stone wall. The wind was knocked out of her, but she moved quickly kicking the person between the legs, making it easy to tell now that it was a boy. He fell over and curled up on the ground, and she ran to the tunnel, crawling in and out like lightning. Not watching where she was going, she collided into a body, and began screaming and fighting to get free of the hands that now gripped her tightly.

"Whoa!" came Harry's voice. "Whoa! Calm down, Hermione. It's just me." She looked at him and he let her go. "What's wrong?"

"Let's get out of here!" she cried, and ran for the exit, tugging him along.

About an hour later they were back in there, this time with Snape and Lupin, Hermione leading the way.

"It was right this way," she said. "The witches' nest." She walked into the room with the pipes, but could not find the opening she had crawled through. They all stopped, and she walked up to the wall and looked at the pipes. "I remember these pipes... maybe it was here..." She turned to the other wall but there was nothing there. No opening. Feeling stupid she turned to Harry. "Well, Harry saw."

"All I saw was you making a break for it," he said, shaking his head. Hermione frowned.

"You don't believe me," she muttered. Snape shook his head.

"No," he said, looking at the pipes. "We believe you, that's why the two of you are going back to the ministry to stay. Tonight."

"What?" they cried in unison. "No!" said Hermione. "We can't go now. We're so close to solving this. Besides, you need us because we know the students. Malfoy, Pansy, Blake. We can't go now."

"We can still solve this," said Harry. "We do know the students, and we want to help them."

"Just give us at least one more day. If we don't solve this, then we'll go, we swear." Lupin sighed.

"Alright," he said. "But for now, no one is to come back into here or enter that forbidden wing without an adult, is that understood?"

"Yes sir," they said together.


	10. Feremones

Dr. Algeron entered the room with some papers and handed them to Tonks. "There you are," he said with a smile. "The test results of the fifty dollar bill." Tonks flipped through it and read it to herself.

"Feremones?" she read aloud.

"Yes, feremones," said Algeron. "The chemical insects and animals use to attract their mate."

"An aphrodisiac," said Lupin.

"Or, as most teens put it today, a chemical booty-call." Lupin chuckled, but stopped when Tonks gave him a look. "Now the same feremones were found in the soda straw Max reacted to, so chances are whatever was in there was calling to it's lover. We found the remains of a spider in the straw so we still have to run some tests to identify it."

"So once we identify it, we identify the mate?" asked Tonks.

"We might, although it's not out of the ordinary for the feremones to be picked up by something of a completely different species. Like your dog. He's got a nose for bugs."

"We'll run some tests then and see what we can find," said Lupin. "In the meantime I need to go to the school while Snape and Dumbledore interrogate the people in Draco Malfoy's clan. I'll call you if anything happens."

"Alright," said Tonks. Lupin left and was soon in the hospital wing as Malfoy's group entered in to be questioned one by one. From Hermione's story, there should be some bite marks on the arm of the attacker, and that it was mostlikely a boy.

One after another they came in, but none of them had bite marks. Malfoy was the last to come in, and he sat down, acting like he had better things to do. "So where is this secret hideout?" asked Snape coldly. "It was Hermione you attacked down there last night, wasn't it." Malfoy's eyes widened.

"Granger?" he asked. "It wasn't me! You guys don't believe in ghosts?"

"We do," said Lupin. "But that's not what we're talking about."

"Let me see your arms," said Snape. He reached up and pulled up Malfoy's sleeves. He shook his head. "No bite marks. You can go." Malfoy stood up and started to leave, pausing in the doorway.

"Hermione," he muttered and then continued on. Snape looked at Lupin.

"Perhaps Miss Granger made a mistake," he said cooly.

"Hermione wouldn't lie," objected Lupin.

"Miss Granger is no different from the other students at this school."

Hermione walked down the hall to the dinning hall, but stopped when she spotted Goyle. He smirked at her and waved. "Do you have change for a dollar?" he asked. "Owl post." He gestured to a grey owl sitting perched on his shoulder. Hermione nodded and reached in her sweater pocket, pulling out the change he needed. They exchanged money, and he was able to send the owl on its way.

"So how are your animals and things?" she asked.

"My friends? They're doing fine." She smiled and nodded.

"Good," she said. "I've got to go, but I'll talk to you later." He nodded and left, waving over his shoulder. She turned and decided to retrieve a book from her locker before going to eat. As she opened it, she placed her sweater inside and fished around for the book when Pansy walked by and went to her locker, sniffing and wiping her eyes. Hermione looked up at her and walked over to her, gently placing a hand on her shoulder. "Pansy?" she asked. "What is it? What's wrong?" Pansy looked up at her as another tear fell.

"One of your friends dumped a soda over my head," she said bitterly. "Pretty funny, huh?" Hermione's eyes widened and she shook her head.

"I'm so sorry," she said softly. Pansy sneered.

"Yeah, I bet you are."

Hermione went back to her locker to retrieve her sweater and went back to Pansy. "Pansy," she said. "Take my sweater. Have my sweater." She placed it over Pansy's shoulders, and she looked up at her, clearly not expecting this. "Just take it, please. It's a start." Pansy stared at her for a moment, and then turned and left, pulling the sweater around herself.

"Here are the test results," said Algeron as he typed away on the computer. "What we have in here is a Brown Recluse spider. Male." Tonks walked over and looked at the image that appeared on the screen of the spider.

"Does the poison cause hallucinations?" she asked. Algeron shook his head.

"Afraid not. This little fella didn't do it." Tonks groaned.

"There has got to be a connection," she sighed.

"Well, we do have pieces of him, we may be able to find out who she is. If it's another Brown Recluse, then I'm not worried. The problem is that this is a two week old sample," he said, gesturing to the soda straw. "We may not be able to find out the female."

"Wait," she said, walking over to one of the bins and pulling out a plastic bag. Inside it was the fifty dollar bill. "Max also responded to this. If we air flush this, we might be able to get a sample big enough."

"That we might!" he said with a smile, and got right on it.


	11. She's all I got!

Harry took a seat near Seamus and Neville while they watched play rehersals. The drama club was a new feature this year, and their latest production, The Hangman's Curse, was going to be performed that night. Seamus and Nevilles said hi, but Malfoy glanced up and groaned. He stood up, along with the rest of his gang, and they all moved over, including Seamus and Neville who were new members of the clan. Seamus shrugged apologetically, but Harry nodded it off. As he turned back towards the front, he noticed that Pansy hadn't followed them. Instead she was sitting in her seat, bent over a sketch book, Hermione's sweater still draped over her shoulders. Malfoy glanced at her.

"Pansy, c'mon," he said softly. She did not respond to him, and he got up and sat down behind her, looking over her shoulder. Harry glanced over as well. Pansy's hand was moving up and down on the paper, making dark charcoal lines that went off in every dirrection. She seemed to be completely in a trance. "Pansy, what's wrong?" whispered Malfoy. Pansy did not respond, but continued running the pencil over the paper, not seeming to notice what she was doing.

Pansy felt her heart beat speed up, and suddenly noticed what was on her paper. She had completely lost controll of her hand, and could not stop scribbling. She slammed her hands on her paper, and threw the sketchbook down with a cry. The world around her suddenly turned to darkening colors, and her breathing became more rapid. She glanced up on the stage set and began screaming and pointing at a noose.

"Malfoy!" she shrieked. "Malfoy, it's Abel! Malfoy!"

She began writhing around and Malfoy climbed over the seats and placed his hands on her shoulders. She grabbed onto him as if her life depended on it and fell from her seat, screaming and throwing her fists at nothing. "Malfoy, help me! Oh no! Malfoy! It's Abel! Abel Frye! Malfoy make him go away! Ack!" Her eyes rolled back into her head and she began shaking, and Malfoy and the others were pulled back. Harry watched in horror as Pansy went into a cesure, and the teachers were soon there, forcing everyone to go back and to not touch her.

"No no no!" cried Malfoy. "Not her!" Pansy continued shaking and gasping. "Not her! Please not her! She's one of us!" Tears flooded his eyes and fell down his face, surprising Harry. "She's all I've got!"

"Why would Malfoy's group curse one of their own?" asked Hermione. Lupin searched through Pansy's locker for the hex mark.

"Maybe it was intended for Blake and it backfired," he said. "Either way, there's no hangman in her locker."

"It doesn't make any sense," she groaned.

"Yes, well, the students are finally being sent home so they're all gathering in the great hall. Meet me down there." She nodded, and went to her locker to grab her things. A hand fell on her shoulder, and she screamed and turned. "Blake!" she cried. Blake's face was all sweaty and he looked terrified.

"I gotta stop Malfoy and his gang before they try to curse anyone else," he said shakily.

"Blake, no. You need to go down to the great hall so you can go home," she said softly. "You'll be safer there." Blake shook his head.

"I gotta go." He turned and ran up the stairs, but Hermione chased after him.

"Blake?" she called. "Blake!" She reached the top of the stairs, but Blake was already gone. Sighing exasperatedly, she walked over to the wall and leaned her back against it. There came a rattling noise, followed by tinly patters, and she looked up and noticed that the air vent was a few inches from her face. Pearing in, the noise got louder, and she ran off to get some equipment.

Harry ran back stage of the play set, looking around frantically for Malfoy. He knew something was going to happen if he didn't reach him fast.

"Abel face me!" came a voice, and he ran in that dirrection to find Malfoy pacing around on the stand from the set with the noose in front of him, the stand was a good five feet from the ground. "We need to talk this out!" he cried frantically.

"Malfoy," called Harry. "You need to get out of here. Something bad is going on."

"We need to find some sort of agreement," shouted Malfoy, but not to Harry.

"You think a stupid ghost did this?!" cried Harry. "That's what you think. You think a stupid ghost did this!" He reached up on the plank, but Malfoy kicked him off. He walked over to the noose and slipped it around his neck.

"Abel Frye!" he shouted. "Take me instead! Don't take her, just take me!" Harry reached up again, but Malfoy kicked him down again.

"No," he said firmly. "Don't do it, Malfoy."

There was the sound of something brushing against the stage floor, and they looked over to see that the curtain had opened and the entire room was packed with students, waiting to hear from Dumbledore. When they saw Malfoy with the noose around his neck, they stood up and started shouting, "JUMP!" There were a few Slytherin's shouting for him to not jump, but their voices weren't loud enough against the crowd.

"No," called Harry to Malfoy. "Look at me! Don't look at them! Malfoy!" But Malfoy wasn't listening. He stared at the group, and Harry braced himself. Snape and Lupin were on the side of the stage in seconds, but did not move for fear of what might happen.

In the back of his mind, Malfoy could see himself and Pansy being tormented by the school, and he saw all the times she had sat crying in his arms. He saw her fall from her seat, screaming and begging him to save her. The pain was too much, and he closed his eyes and started to lean forward.

Harry raised his hands up, and caught Malfoy's legs as he fell off the stand, and Snape and Lupin ran over and pushed Malfoy's body up to keep him alive. Someone grabbed Malfoy from behind and pulled him back on the stand, coughing and panting. Harry glanced up and smiled. It was Blake who had caught him. Snape was soon on the stand, and together, he and Blake helped support Malfoy as he made his way down the steps, and they all sat backstage, away from the students who were all booing and shouting at Harry and Blake.

Hermione walked over to the vent with a suit in her hands, and a small screwdriver. Moving quickly she unscrewed the screws and pulled off the grate, setting it on the floor. She then slipped into the white suit that made her look like a spaceman, but kept every inch of her covered incase there was something in there. Making sure her wand was in her pocket, she crawled into the vent and slowly made her way down.


	12. The Itsy Bitsy Spider Went Up The Water ...

Algeron and Tonks sat in front of the air flushing machine, waiting impatiently for it to finish. Algeron sighed and shrugged.

"Well, you know what they say about a watched pot never boils?" he said. The machine stopped and dinged, and he opened it eagerly and typed into the computer the code. "Here we are. Feremone sample number 2.... 23607. Feremone of..." The image appeared on the screen of what looked like a tarantula with black and brown spots, and Algeron's eyes widened. He nodded and lept from his seat. "I'm worried!" he declared. "It all makes perfect sense now! It was staring me in the eyes but I didn't want to face it."

"What?" asked Tonks. "What is it?"

"That," he said pointing to the screen. "That is an African Spotted Wolf spider. Their bites cause mild nausia, then hallucinations followed by comas then eventually... death! It all makes sense now!"

"But why the soda straws?"

"It's so clean and well planned. Why didn't I see it before..."

"Algeron!" He remembered she was there and turned to her.

"It's an old African tribal tactic. First you give your enemy a gift, but you lace it with feremones."

"The money!" said Tonks. "All of the victims had tainted money." Algeron nodded and picked up two cotton balls, a clear plastic tube and a toy spider.

"Next you plant the male African Spotted Wolf near the victim."

"The soda straws."

"It's quite simple. You plug one end with sugar," He stuffed one of the cotton balls into one of the ends of the tube. "You put the male in, you plug the other end with sugar," he placed the toy spider in and stuffed the cotton ball into the other side. "The male smells the feremones on the victim. He chews his way through the sugar and out of the straw. He climbs onto the victim, but when he can't find the female he gets angry until he bites you."

"The triconal was a control measure," said Tonks. Algeron took the toy spider out of the tube.

"It's an insecticide. The spider dies within a day, and the bites are virtually undetectable."

"But then why didn't Blake go first?"

"The soda straw in Blake's locker, whoever did this, put a female in by mistake. So she squirted her feremone all over the inside of the straw so that she could attract a male. Any male! What she got was a Brown Recluse spider." He picked up another toy spider and had the two facing each other. "He chewed his way into the straw. They met. They mated. She ate him." he tossed one of the spider's over his shoulder and typed something into his computer. "She crawled out of the straw, into the air vent and had babies. Babies that grow larger with every generation. And the venom is more potent now. That's why Pansy reacted within an hour."

"Oh no," muttered Tonks.

"They breed like mad. By this point there could be thousands. More than thousands!" Tonks stood up and ran to get her cell phone. "I'm going to St. Mungos to get some blood from Pansy, and we'll have the anti-venom in an hour at the most. Call up Lupin and get everyone out of there now!" Tonks obeyed and began to dial the number.

Malfoy took in a deep breath and sighed, shaking his head. He, Harry, Blake, Snape and Lupin were all outside of the great hall, protecting Malfoy from hearing what people were shouting at him.

"I don't know what got a hold of me up there," he muttered to Harry.

"Or who got a hold of you," said Harry. Malfoy glanced at Blake and nodded.

"It was just like, Abel was calling me. Like he wanted me to jump."

"Do you still trust this spirit of yours?" Malfoy shook his head, and Lupin's cell phone rang. He walked around the corner to answer it.

"Hello?"

"Lupin! Thank God!" It was Tonks. She sounded upset.

"Tonks?" he asked. "Calm down. What's wrong?"

"We've just identified the source. There's no ghost. It's spiders!" Lupin's eyes widened.

"What?"

"You have to get everyone out of there!"

"Where's Algeron?"

"He's at St. Mungo's to get the cure. I'm on my way over there."

"Make sure he get's it fast," said Lupin, and with that he hung up. "We need to get everyone out of the building now!" he said as he came to Snape. "It's spider's that are causing the hallucinations. We need to evacuate the building. Get everyone outside. Harry, get Max and have him sniff every student before they leave the school. If these spider's get loose it'll be a nightmare. If Max reacts, healers are outside. Have the student go to them, and they'll take care of everything else."

"Yes, sir," said Harry, and he ran off, and Snape took charge of evacuating the building.

Tonks hurried around the lab, collecting her purse and other items, then turned to turn off the digital recorder. What was playing on it caught her attention and her jaw dropped.

"eeerrrr.......Heeeerrrrrmiiiiioooneeee....Grrrraaaangeeeerrrr...."


	13. Don't Move!

Hermione climbed through the vent, lowering herself slowly, relying only on fingerholds and toes holds. The tapping sounds got louder the lower she went until she felt something crawl over her hand. The lights in her helmet had barely illuminated the eight hairy legs, when she screamed and brushed it off. There were thousands bellow her, and she could hear them making their way up the walls and towards her. She began to climb as fast as she could to the top until she was able to push the vent open and climb into a completely different area.

The vent was slammed closed and she looked around, realizing almost immediatly that she was in the forbidden wing, in a room she had not been in yet. She walked around, watching for spiders and trying to see if she could find a way out.

There was only one small beam of light shinning in, and it shined on something that caught her attention. An old noose, hanging forgotten about from one of the roof beams. Hermione pulled off her helmet and stared at it for a while.

"Abel Frye," she muttered. The air around seemed to go ice cold, and she shuddered, knowing now that she was in a tomb.

She walked into another area and found over a dozen tanks filled with spiders, each of them getting bigger as she went on until she was looking at a spider the size of her fist. Some of the tanks had fifty dollar bills in them and others had soda straws in them, smaller spiders crawling around them.

"You again?" came a voice, and Hermione turned to look, her jaw almost dropping to the floor.

A group of students stood in a line in front of Harry, who was holding Max's leash as he sniffed them. Ron was next in line and completely oblivious of the spiders, as well as the others. Max sniffed him, but took a little longer than he had with the others. Harry's hands began to tighten up.

"What's going on?" asked Ron. "I don't have drugs, I swear!" Max began barking, and two healers grabbed Ron by the arms and pulled him away. "I didn't do anything!" he cried. They took him into a ten and then stripped his shirt off. Ron looked at his stomach and gave a cry. A large spider was working its way up his stomach and onto his chest. The healers brushed it off, killed it, and cast a spell on him to make the feremones go away. Ron was no the only one who had this done. Within five minutes, over ten people got sent to the healers with either spiders, just feremones, or sometimes bites.

Lupin walked around, when Tonks ran up to him, out of breath and looking frightened.

"Tonks? What are you doing here?" he asked.

"It's Hermione," she panted. "She's been targeted by the witches and she could be covered in feremones! We need to find her. She's at more risk than anyone else."

"Alright," said Lupin. "Go back to Algeron and help him."

"But Remus..."

"We need to get the antidote now or a lot of people will die."

"I'm so worried for her."

"I am too," assured Lupin. "Now go." He turned and hurried inside, walking down the line until he knew Hermione was not there. He ran down the halls until he came to the open air vent with Hermione's purse sitting outside of it. Moving quickly, he stuck his head inside and began to shout out her name, hoping she would hear him.

"Someone set us up," muttered Malfoy as he and Harry sat outside. Harry nodded and crossed his legs. "They sold us this whole ghost story." He looked up at Harry. "Harry, I've got a lot of apologizing to do, so I'd better start with you."

"It's alright," he muttered. "As long as you know the truth now."

"But you don't understand. I cursed Hermione." Harry jumped and looked at him.

"What?!"

"I carved a hangman in her locker and everything." Harry stood to his feet and paced around.

"Alright," he growled. "Who started this whole thing? The Abel Frye stories?" Malfoy shook his head, and Seamus shrugged.

"Don't look at me," he muttered. "I wouldn't hurt a fly."

Something triggered in Harry's memory, and he remembered his conversation with Abel's sister.

"He wouldn't hurt a fly. I hope they rot in hell for what they did to my brother and to my... my family."

Family.

Without hesitating, he ran back into the school and into Dumbledore's office, after trying a dozen times to find the password. He leafed through the student files and began reading home addresses.

"Who else lives on that road?" he muttered. Suddenly it was right in front of him, and he stopped to reread it again. "What?" he gasped.

Goyle stood, holding a spider tank in his hands while Hermione struggled to speak. "Goyle?" she muttered.

"I don't expect you to understand..." he muttered.

"You're right," she said. "I don't." He placed the tank down.

"I like to watch in the halls at night to see what the others are doing. It feels so good to see the bad guys scared for a change." Hermione winced.

"I know what it's like to be scared... by you." He shook his head.

"No. You didn't deserve it. You and Potter were getting too close to the truth. That's why I lured you into the witching chamber last night, remember?" He pulled up his sleeve and revealed the bite mark.

"Goyle, what do you think you're doing?"

"No," he said putting up a hand. "Don't try to tell me it's wrong. It's justified." He picked up the tank again and stared at the large spider inside. "They gutted me, Hermione." He looked at her. "They tore me open everyday and they laughed about it! Do you know what it's like to be gutted in front of dozens of laughing people?"

"I see it, Goyle," she said nodding. "I know what you're talking about."

"You just want to beat them up, and beat them up, and beat them up." He set the tank down again and sneered. "But I scared them. They're not laughing anymore." Hermione shook her head.

"You're right, they're not."

"Does Malfoy and his group know you're doing this?" He shook his head.

"No. They think this really is a ghost. The spiders provide the poison, and they provide the hysteria that makes the victim think he's seen a ghost. It was so carefully planned."

"Goyle, you've got so much intellegence," she said, shaking her head. "Don't throw it all away now."

"I don't need you to understand," said Goyle. "I don't expect you to understand... I don't want you to understand. The more we talk the more you know." He reached in his pocket and drew out a knife. "But it didn't work," he growled.

"What didn't?"

"You were supposed to be bitten. The dollar I gave you? Remember? You put it in your sweater. But then you turned around and gave it to Pansy. Hermione, God must be really looking out for you. So this'll be my third try. Let's hope it's a charm." Hermione took a step back and he lept at her, holding the knife in front of him. She screamed and ran, pushing a table over so it would get in his way. Goyle grabbed her from behind, but she stomped on his foot, making him fall.

She ran to the air vent, put her helmet on, and crawled down quickly. Her feet stepped on a loose handle and she fell with a scream, barely grabbing onto the side of one of the walls in time. To her surprise, Lupin's face was right there, and he jumped back when he saw her.

"Hermione!" he called, and reached in after her. She let go with one hand and reached to him and grabbed on. But when she let go with the other hand she lost her grip altogether and fell the rest of the way, screaming until she crashed through the bottom and landed on her back in the middle of the witching chamber. Lupin called to her from above, but she was unconcious. Within seconds, Harry came running up to him and looked at him frantically.

"I know who's doing this," he panted.

"Hermione just fell through here," said Lupin. "We've got to find a way in." Harry nodded and started running with him down the hallway.

Hermione's head was throbbing when she woke up. Her vision was slightly blurry, and the stomach wrenching pain in her leg told her it was broken so she didn't dare try to move it. There was a tapping noise on her helmet and she looked up, only to see eight large hairy legs sprawled on the cover. She screamed loudly and realized she could feel them crawling all over her suit.

"Somebody help me!" she shrieked. "Help me, please! NO!" Tears were falling down her face and she picked up a hand only to see about five of the large monsters were on her.

There were footsteps, and soon Goyle came into veiw, the spider tank in his hands again. All the spiders on the ground seemed to be crawling away from him as though he were wearing some sort of repellant.

"There weren't supposed to be this many," he muttered. "A blessing and a curse."

"Goyle," gasped Hermione. "Help me. I think my leg is broken." He shook his head and placed the spider tank on top of the altar and then turned back to Hermione.

"They're not bothering you," muttered Hermione.

"I'm covered in the male feremone. It drives the other males away and the females don't care."

"You wouldn't happen to have any more of that on you, would you?"

"For you? No." Hermione sniffed and shook her head. Goyle kneeled down beside her, the knife in his hands again. "I never killed anyone," he growled and lowered the knife towards her side, penetrating the suit.

"No!" screamed Hermione, certain he was going to gut her. But instead he made a giant tear in the suit. And she felt the legs of the spiders as they began to crawl inside.

"Don't move, Hermione," said Goyle as he dropped the knife. "For the rest of your life."


	14. Newfound Hope

Harry and Lupin entered the classroom where Goyle kept his animals and looked around.

"This is where Goyle spends most of his time," said Harry. "Maybe there's something in here that'll lead us to the witching chamber." Lupin nodded and they began looking through papers and folders that belonged to Goyle trying to see if they could find anything.

Lupin was at the table where Sarah the mouse sat in her cage, scratching at one of her plastic tunnels. Lupin lifted the little door and Doris climbed inside, giving him a sudden thought. He reached up to one of the above tubes that was in the shape of a 'U' and pulled it up slowly until one of the holes it went into was open. He moved the tube to the side making the hole completely uncovered and then placed the tube back in place.

"I think I've figured it out," he said, turning to Harry. "Come with me." They ran out of the room, and Lupin lead him back into the boiler room.

Hermione lay absolutely still as she felt five of the large spiders crawling around the inside of her suit. If she moved she would startle them and they'd bite her for sure. Goyle was standing by the altar, watching his spider with facination.

"I wonder how I'll be remembered," he muttered, turning to Hermione. "Me? No one remembered my uncle, not until I made him famous."

"Goyle," said Hermione softly. "This is not the way-"

"Sh!" said Goyle, shaking his head. "Don't talk. It makes them nervous." He began unbuttoning his shirt. "If I let you live, you'll tell everyone about me and walk away the hero, and I'll be locked up in JUVY with more Weasleys, Bayneses, and Boltzes." He reached over to his large spider and took it out, holding it in the palm of his hand. His shirt was completely unbuttoned and he began to place the large spider on his chest. "A jabbing wolf," he said softly. "He doesn't care about feremones..."

"No, Goyle, don't..." But it was too late. Goyle placed the spider on his chest, pushed it down so it felt threatened and the spider bit down immediatly. He gasped in sudden pain and fell to his knees as the area around the spider turned red. "Goyle, stop it!" shouted Hermione, sitting up without thinking. She began to feel several pin pricks all up and down her back and she flinched. The spiders were biting, but she didn't care about that now. Goyle finally lost conciousness and fell flat on his face, the spider releasing and crawling away. He looked like he was dead.

Hermione felt a sudden shot of dizziness and fell backwards with a cry as the area around her began to spin in circles. The colors around turned to black an white and she could see Abel Frye standing in front of her, a menacing smile on his face.

"Hermione... Hermione..." He called, holding the noose in his hands. Hermione closed her eyes until she lost conciousness altogether. The last thing she recalled was hearing Abel's voice say, "Hermione, c'mon! Wake up. Everything's going to be alright."

Harry sat on his knees gently shaking Hermione and begging her to wake up. Lupin had found the way in by pulling back one of the pipes and pushing it to the side, just like the mouse cage. Hermione's eyes rolled back into her head and she lay there, not moving and barely breathing.

"Hermione, c'mon!" begged Harry. "Don't do this to me!" There came a crash from the side and Lupin and Snape stepped in, breaking through one of the walls. Lupin had been too big to fit through the tunnel.

"Oh no," he muttered, catching a glimpse of Hermione.

Hermione was carried out of the building and soon injected with the anti venom. Malfoy came running up, wide eyed and beginning to freak out.

"She's got a lot of bites," he muttered, shaking his head. "This was all my fault..."

"It wasn't," said Harry, looking at him. "It wasn't you. Just calm down."

"Is she going to die?" he asked Lupin. Lupin shook his head.

"I don't know," he answered.

"Oh man," muttered Malfoy as he sat down and held his head in his hands. Harry sat down with him.

"She'll make it, Malfoy. So will the others." Malfoy looked back at the other healers who had Goyle laying on a stretcher as they fought to save his life. He shook his head.

"I can't believe it got this bad," he muttered. "I should've listened."

He watched as the healers continued to work on Hermione for the next hour...

Lupin brought out a platefull of burgers and set them down on the picnic table. Tonks smiled as she set out some ketchup and mustard. "It smells great, Remus," she said with a smile. She walked over to Algeron who was tossing bread crumbs at an anthill.

"Am I feeding you or the ants?" she asked.

"Oh, these aren't any ordinary ants," said Algeron. "They're fire ants."

"Don't stand too close," said Hermione from her seat. She had a cast on her leg and was reading Hogwarts a History for the one millionth time. Everytime Lupin looked at her, he knew she was living proof that miracles were real. And if she wasn't proof enough, Malfoy and Pansy certainly were.

Malfoy tossed out a frisby to Pansy who lept for it, along with Harry. Both fell to the ground laughing and Blake laughed, shaking his head.

"Man," he said to Malfoy. "That's not how you throw a frisby." Malfoy snickered. He was wearing a pair of jeans and grey t-shirt, very different from all the black everyone had gotten used to seeing.

Pansy was wearing a baby blue t-shirt and jeans, and was currently running from Harry with the frisby.

"She's all that, isn't she?" said Blake. Malfoy nodded.

"And a bag of chips," he said.

"You know, you're gonna have to treat her right, or else you may find yourself with a little competition." Malfoy laughed and shook his head. Pansy ran right to them with the frisby and knocked Malfoy down, Blake falling on top. Harry shrugged, shouted out, "Dog pile!" and jumped on top.

"Dinner!" called Tonks. They all stood up and walked over to the table and sat down to eat, under the setting sun.

(A/N: This was a little hard to do since a lot of the elements were muggle, but I tried. Tootles!)


End file.
